The beautiful road from Samarkand to Shahrisabz crosses the Zeravshan Mountains and descends to the Kashka Daria valley. At the time of Tamerlane, the modest Sogdian city was ruled by the Barlas clan, a Turko-Mongolian tribe related to the Chagatai, warriors descended from Genghis Khan. The Barlas clan was led by Tamerlane's father, Taraghay. The great works decided by the emperor in the city, which he renamed Shahrisabz, the "green city", began in 1379 and continued until the middle of the 15th century under the reign of Ulug Begh. The fortification walls were pushed back and raised to a height of 11 meters. They were surrounded by wide ditches and gates were opened at the four cardinal points by drawbridges. Some fragments of the walls can still be seen on the outskirts of the old town. Following his victory over Kunia-Ourgench, the powerful and beautiful capital of Khorezm located in present-day Turkmenistan, Tamerlane had the best masters and craftsmen deported to Shahrisabz and Samarkand. The city was thus enriched with rich dwellings, mosques, madrasas, caravanserais and multiple gardens. Tamerlan built two tombs decorated with blue and gold enamel tiles for his father and his eldest son and worked for more than twenty years on the construction of the Ak-Sarai, "the white palace", a summer palace described with admiration by the Castilian Ruy Gonzales de Clavijo, who was sent on an embassy to Tamerlan in 1404. Shahrisabz enjoyed a short-lived glory in the 16th century, but the Emir of Bukhara, Abdullah Khan II, could not stand the insolent brilliance of this jewel. The white palace was practically demolished and its bricks were used as mere building material. All that remains is a huge portal sumptuously decorated with majolica. Since its inscription on the World Heritage List in 1993, tourism has largely participated in the metamorphosis of the city center ... for its greatest misfortune! The decade 2010 has resulted in a total disappearance of housing and bazaar around the main monuments of the Timurid era, the goal being to put them in value and perspective in the urban landscape, within a large park developed on what was once a city. In the end, we go from one monument to another by crossing green spaces too young to offer any shade; "historical" buildings rebuilt from scratch; the whole lined with tourist stores selling only horrors and some insipid hotels with a cold and already dilapidated welcome. It's unfortunate to say, but visiting Sharisabz is no longer of any interest, and most of the tourists are already coming only for the road, which is still as beautiful as ever, and turn back at the pass, before reaching the city.If you still go there, take a few steps around the imposing Ak Saray palace and some other historical monuments, but plan to go back in the evening with your driver because spending a night in Sharisabz is strictly no longer interesting.

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